Dear family,

So this week's numbers appeared horrible compared to the previous 2 transfers.  However, in this one week, we had transfers, mission conference, and district conference.  So that put just about 3 days out of order.  On top of that, we had to take care of finances a couple times, so that took a while.  We still ended up with a total of 16 lessons this week, which is still a lot better than my previous areas.

The other day, we had a really cool thing happen.  We were walking home from a rather unorganized lesson with some of our previous baptismal dates, and we ran into this one kid named Mario whom we had given a Book of Mormon quite some time ago.  I asked him if he had been reading it, and he said he was on page 139 and thought it was true.  So we told him we would come back on Saturday to teach him.  When we went to his house, he wasn't home, so we went back on Sunday.  He still wasn't home.  So we just need to catch him, and I think we'll have another baptism on the way.  That would be awesome.

Meanwhile, back to the previous baptismal dates, the last lesson with them was slightly annoying.  The mom had been saying how they already knew enough for baptism, so they had no need to come to church or be taught anymore.  I think the mom is still just getting over the car accident incident even though her daughter is almost 100% better now.  I think it is a mixture of the car accident, her oldest daughter being in the hospital just a couple weeks before, and having to deal with constant visitors as of late.  I think the next meeting we have we will have to figure out a way we can help them out around the house.  We would also like to take a member over there one time so we can have an older Albanian mother talk to her and be able to relate to her.

Ketjon, one of our other previous baptismal dates, is still a bit apprehensive to be baptized.  He says he wants to wait until he knows whether or not his family is moving to Italy or not.  He said he'd read and pray every day until next fast Sunday where he will fast and pray to see when he should be baptized.  Hopefully this all works out and he ends up doing all this.  He comes to church every week and hasn't ever ditched a meeting, but I think he just forgets a lot of things.

English course last Saturday went really well.  I talked to some members beforehand and told them to help the students if they needed help instead of blurting out answers and not allowing them to learn.  Then, there's this boy that usually comes and makes noise, but I set him aside before class as well, and told him we'd play a game with his ball if he was good during class.  Luckily, in our book we teach out of, it had a game where we taught numbers with a game with a ball.  So that worked rather well.  We then taught the first part of the Plan of Salvation where a member was able to really help us.  Usually, this member is usually pretty difficult and noisy, but he did really well and said the closing prayer at the end.

It's been pretty hot around these parts, and I have decided I like the winter much better than summer.  Luckily, I think the summer is half way over, so just a bit more.  Then, when the summer is over, I'll be half way done with my mission.  That's not for another 3 months, but still, that's pretty cool.  I have a feeling that I will be leaving Vlorë in 1 or 2 transfers.  My companion here is in the branch presidency, and I think President probably put him here because he could be here for 6 months.  We'll see how things work out.  I think that even though I hate moving, I like being in different places.

I met some of the new missionaries this past week, and that was fun.  Now there are 2 groups younger than me.  I remember thinking when I first got to the country that the people with 6-9 months in the country had to be pretty great missionaries.  Now I get to see how they really were.  We have a pretty small mission, so it seems like everybody knows everybody else.  Around transfer calls, I think a lot of people do this transfer madness thing where everybody tries to guess where everybody is going to go.  I have heard that people don't really do that in other missions because there are typically a lot more people.  I usually just try to guess my current district's happenings, but I usually get mostly wrong.  It's fun anyways.

Well, this week, we are planning on getting back a lot of our baptismal dates as well as some new investigators and contacts.  From what I can see, we could potentially get 5-6 baptismal dates by the end of the week.  That would be great.  As long as things go well, I think it has a great chance of happening.

It seems that my companion left the area in quite a predicament.  It wasn't his fault at all, it was just how things seemed to work out.  Hopefully, me and my new companion can fix all the problems that have arisen and get our investigators back on the right track.  Sometimes I feel like I can easily take care of the work I have, and other times, it all just seems too overwhelming.  Lately, it seems like these cycles have been going faster.  One day I feel great, the next day not so much, and the next day, I'm feeling good again.  It's really weird, although I would much rather have a week or two of good straight.

I think that's about all I can think of for this week.  I have a good feeling about this next one.  We hit another low for our area, but last time we did that, the work exploded and went out of control... in a good way of course.  From there, it was just like the snowball effect and expanded into what it was as of last week.  We just need to keep doing our best, and things will work out.

Love,
Elder Wallentine